Movies

An audio recording of Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel complaining about the lack of Muslim villains in movies in 2006 was recently unearthed.

According to Dark Horse Mississippi, McDaniel made the statement on the "Right Side Radio" program, which he co-hosted before being elected to the Mississippi Senate (audio below).

The Tea Party-backed McDaniel is now running for the US Senate seat currently held by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss), notes the Huffington Post.

"It's funny how the movies have portrayed themselves lately and how the video games have portrayed themselves lately," stated McDaniel. "There's one person that cannot be a villain in Hollywood, ever. One group that cannot be villains. Who is that?"

At that point, a co-host answers, "Muslims."

"Yeah, isn't that neat?" replies McDaniel. "They'll go out of their way to find some Russian white guy that's just nuts, and he's the terrorist, which I've never seen that. But the Muslims, they've just disappeared from Hollywood's radar."

However, Mother Jones notes that Muslims have been portrayed as villains in several TV series and in films such as: Syriana, The Kingdom, Rules of Engagement, The Siege, True Lies, and Zero Dark Thirty.

The New York Times reported that Arab American actors actually have problems finding roles other than villains, terrorists and hijackers.

On another episode of the radio program, McDaniel blamed rising gun violence on hip-hop, "It's a problem of a culture that values prison more than college; a culture that values rap and destruction of community values more than it does poetry; a culture that can't stand education."

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